Bathroom Passes

I don't know about you but after a few weeks of students' being in school, my bathroom passes get torn up, wet and soggy, or lost...even possibly flushed down the toilet!  This year, I made these cute bathroom passes and laminated them.  Then, I put them inside a name tag holder, which students must put around their necks so they don't get dropped, washed, or chewed on!  I went to FedEx Kinkos and bought heady duty name badge holders (also known as small conference credentials), which has a vinyl pocket you can put the laminated bathroom pass inside of.  I'm crossing my fingers that these passes can last me all year.  Download your set here: Bathroom Pass Freebie

Shape Review

During the month of August, students learn a new color and shape each day.  The first three days of school we teach red octagon, yellow hexagon and blue rectangle.  On Friday, we review those three shapes and colors.   In the past I just cut up strips of paper and let the students make a design but this year I saw something that trigged my creativity.  I decided to take the octagon and hexagon and turn them into birds and I made the rectangle into a telephone line.  The art project below shows the final outcome and I think they did a wonderful job!  Template can be downloaded here: Shape Template

Yearly Langauge Arts Pacing

Over the years I have gathered enough worksheets from prior months being paced that I saved and organized them by months (in my binders, of course!).  Right before school ended last year, I thought it was time to combine all the months together in one BIG binder, so everything was easy to access and all paced out for me.  I even went a step further and re-photocopied some older pages to revamp them!  I went to OfficeMax and bought a 4in binder and monthly tabs, so I could start organizing.   FYI  - Office Max will price match, so if you have a smart phone be sure to scan the barcode to your phone and stores selling the items at a cheaper rate will appear.  At checkout, show the cashier the cheaper price and you should be good to go!  I only paid $3 for my tabs which originally cost $8.

I then started going through duplicates and throwing old worksheets away.  I left three Language Arts worksheets and one sight word page for each day of the week.  Some pages consists of the letter we are learning, or concentrate on word building/blending.  Then, I went back and wrote the date on each page from our yearly pacing guides.  Now, I know each day is complete, easy to reference and each day will match up to my pacing guide!

Every month all paced out for the entire year

Sight Word practice for January 29th

Making 10

As you are all of aware with Common Core Standards, one of the standards that our grade level found challenging to teach was "Making 10".  Over the summer, I did a lot of research and I found a great idea to teach the concept, a rainbow!  I figured to introduce students to this concept right off the bat, so hopefully it will sink in without them even realizing.

 I've made a huge poster, 24x36 that I printed at OfficeMax and then painted it.  I used my Cricut to cut out the letters and viola!

Before

After

I also made a smaller version to put on the students' pencil boxes.  You can download the template here: Making 10 Freebie

Beginning of the Year Art Projects

Here are some of my favorite art projects we do in the beginning of the year.  My absolute FAVORITE is the paper dolls!  I use my Cricut and the Everyday Paper dolls cartridge to create the dolls.  Sorry, I don't have a downloadable file :(.

We also read Chick Chick Boom Boom and then the students use the letters in their names to "climb" up the coconut tree!  You can download the template here:  Chick Chick Boom Boom Template

Our last project is the Kissng Hand, I don't have the poem but you could copy it and re-type it and make it your own.  Then I get their hand print and stick a heart right on top of their hand!  

Yearly Binder Inserts

I absolutely LOVE organizing, it's one of my favorite things about being a teacher!  I have created binders for each month of the year, including the beginning and the end of the year.  Inside, I keep all art projects and other goodies for the month.  I also used my cricut to create my adorable covers.  I bet I could scan these in and make them printable.  Guess, what I did!  They came out soooo good!  They are up on my TpT site.

I have a total of 37 binders, crazy?!  I have binders for everything!  My most used binders are my yearly Language Arts pacing, student information and data binder.  Those binders are coming up in another post, soon!  

Kindergarden Common Core Standards

Our school is in restructuring in, so that means we have walkthroughs once a month to ensure we are doing our job properly!  After receiving feedback from our of our walkthroughs. my principal wasn't too thrilled that I just had the common core standards posted, she wanted me to be using them in a more interactive way.  So, I had to take some time to think about how I could make interactive standards.  One day, it hit me, CRAYONS!   Now. I love using ALL the colors when I create something (I'm very into rainbows!) and crayons were the only objects I could think of that would let me be able to incorporate a colorful, interactive, common core standard board.  Therefore, I created my standards to look like crayons and I'm absolutely thrilled on how they came out.  My coworkers love them too!  I've made all the standards but I'm not going to display them all at once.  When we are learning a new standard, I will introduce the standard to the class and then house the crayon on my standard wall.  More pictures to come :)


These crayon standards were meant to be versatile, so there is no right or wrong way to use them! I printed and cut them but didn’t laminate them. However, I cut up sheet protectors to fit the crayons and I display my standards that way. I’ve seen many teachers display their standards by using ribbon and hanging them. It’s completely up to you on how you want to use them and how to display them. You have the power!

Below are some examples of the crayon kindergarten common core standards!  The crayons come in more colors, of course!  You can find the full version on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Here are some of the Common Core Standards that students are to learn during the month of August.  As I said prior, I only use the Standards we are learning and by the end of the year, the whole board will be filled with the crayons!

Here the is full board, to be filled by the end of the year!